The Commute to Work
Posted July 28 2008 8:13PM by Michael
Overall, my commute to work in the morning is very peaceful. I get on the train every morning, put in my sweet Shure headphones, and take a 40 minute nap. However, once the train arrives at Union Station there is always a few people that don't realize that there is a massive hoard of people behind them trying to get to work. The culprits are the following:
- The guy who can't walk straight
This guy likes to swerve back and forth on really narrow stretches of hallway or sidewalk in an accidental attempt to not let anyone walk by. Sort of like a beat up old car on a 2 lane road that is straddling both lanes going well under the speed limit
- The best friends
Normally girls, these two buddies act like they haven't seen each other in years as they take up the entire width of the hallway/sidewalk. One time I was walking and there were actually 4 people walking side by side down the sidewalk and I actually had to walk in the street to get around them. The sad part is I see the same people doing this all the time.
- Briefcase-on-wheels lady
Someone got the brilliant idea to use a briefcase on wheels even though they have a smaller bag than 95% of the people on the street. And immediately off the train, they extend the handle and start wheeling. Except there is a whole train of people slowly making their way to the door. And this person (yes, I have seen guys doing this too, even guys in suits) just wheels their bag behind them without looking, doing a little swerving here and there. I can understand if you are carrying some obscenely heavy item (or are weak), but what middle-aged guy can't carry a laptop and some papers...
Even better, when I was looking for a picture of this online, I even found an article claiming that this was the cool new thing to do. I hope that in the past year this 'trend' has died. Somehow I can't find any pictures of this phenomenom online, and I even have tried in the past to discretely taking a picture of one of these people, but they are too quick to hide when the paparazzi show. Please, do not contribute to this problem by purchasing one of these. I beg you.
I have another short story that falls under this category as well:
One day I was commuting to work and sitting at the far end from the stairs on the upstairs level. As the train pulled into the station, I was getting ready for all the people ahead of me to get up and leave (many of the seats forced the travelers to put their legs in the tiny aisle). For some reason, the vast majority of the people just sat there reading their newspapers. Five minutes later, they were still there, acting like they didn't realize we pulled into the station. At this point, I just wanted to make sure I got off the train before it took off back to the suburbs. Soon after they slowly got their things together and left.
Needless to say, I haven't sat on the top level since that day.